A Couple of Early Spring Hikes

Technically, it wasn't early Spring when I took these photos, but high up in the mountains springtime lags behind the lower valley. Because of that, up high it looks like Spring is just getting started. Even higher it looks like winter still.

About a month ago I went for another hike up the same canyon I've been visiting off and on for a few months now. Less than a mile into the hike, I looked back and saw four Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep resting high on a ridge maybe three hundred or four hundred yards from me. The camera I carry on these hikes is a cheap little Casio, and it's rather limited in what it can do. I snapped a picture anyway. If you can't see the four bighorns on the skyline in the photo shown above, I'll include the next picture pointing them out.

The vegetation had greened up considerably since the last time I was in the canyon, though the trees had not leafed out completely.

Here's a section of thick stuff just off the trail about halfway to where the trail forks.

As I hike, I try to remember to look around - not just focus on whats ahead. That's how I got to see the bighorn sheep I mentioned earlier. There's other reasons to keep aware of the landscape behind and all around you. This is a view looking back down canyon to the cliffs and slopes I passed below earlier in the hike.

There's not much left of the avalanche tongue I had to hike over earlier this year. Small trees that were once mostly buried under several feet of snow are now beginning to sprout leaves.

The next picture is a view looking up canyon from the avalanche chute. If you look at the brush in the foreground you might notice that all those little trees are leaning dramatically down slope. These small trees are growing in the avalanche chute. The down-hill angle of the brush is caused by the force of avalanches that sweep down over them every winter, pressing them down. Some of the trees even seem to grow downhill, with only the very tips of the branches curving upwards. These trees might never reach beyond sapling size. From my observation, every tree in the avalanche chute that reaches a trunk diameter of two inches looses sufficient flexibility and is then snapped off by an avalanche.

Upon reaching the trail fork I head up the right hand trail to a meadow. I brought with me a little sheet metal fireplace. Disassembled, it stores completely flat, and is quick and easy to set up. I also brought a brand new 16 oz. stainless steel cup to cook in. 

The little sheet steel fireplace worked surprisingly well. Fed a steady supply of dry maple sticks it cooked my food quickly. Soon I had a hearty helping of oatmeal. The little plastic bottle next to the oatmeal contains honey, which was added to the oatmeal before dining.

Storm clouds began to move in during my break in the meadow. Soon the weather was threatening rain. After eating, I hiked a little farther up canyon, leaving the trail to explore around a little. My hike back down the canyon was in the rain. 

The following week I was back up the canyon. The vegetation was much greener than the week before.

Because of the way the wash meanders back and forth across the narrow canyon as it descends, the trail crosses the wash several times. The wash is usually dry, but on this day snowmelt from a heavy winter snowpack was pouring down the wash, making crossings challenging. Usually I was able to find a place where the stream was wider, shallower and had convenient stepping stones to cross on. A couple times I crossed the wash on fallen logs. A couple times I had to boulder hop above roaring chutes of water to get across. Once I thought I could make a place to cross by tossing a couple rocks for stepping stones into the stream. The rocks were each about a foot and a half in diameter. Shortly after tossing the rocks in, and checking their dubious stability with my hiking staff, I watched as the rapid current caught the hoped-for stepping stones and rolled them into deeper water. Time to find another place to cross.

A familiar view along the trail:

It was a little late in the day when I started the hike, so by the time I reached the meadow I sometimes cook meals at, the meadow was completely in shadow. That shadow was too dark for the camera when I photographed the mountain south of it. You'll just have to imagine a meadow at the bottom of this photo:

Returning to the trail fork I went up the left hand trail to a place I call "Moose Meadow." Instead of cooking a meal this time, I had just brought along some prepackaged snacks. Here they are, sitting on a large blue-grey limestone boulder full of brachiopod and crinoid fossils.

Since it was getting late, and the water crossings had been so tricky, I considered hiking out of the mountains a different way, one that would avoid the high Spring runoff. That would add a few miles to the return hike, some of which would be well after nightfall. After thinking it over, I returned the way I had come, once again successfully staying dry while crossing the stream eight times on my way back down the canyon.

Creek Side Shade Tree

9" x 12" Oil on Panel

Pictured above is a recently made plein air painting. I've painted this tree before. Like so many other subjects, though, it looks different each time I paint it. Sometimes the same landscape can provide a number of paintings, all different. Different times of day, weather, seasons, or years; also what I'm thinking or feeling at the time, all give the subject a different appearance. If development doesn't overrun these fields and trees, I'll probably return at some point in the future to paint them again.

Photos from a Winter Walk

Tuesday was a wonderful day for a walk in the country. Winter can be rather unpleasant around here, but not on this day! The sky was so blue. Temperatures weren't too cold. Blue shadows contrasted with warm sunlight, highlighting the sepia, ochre and umber colors of marsh grasses and brush. A narrow first quarter moon shown faintly over the Wasatch Mountains.

There's always a ready-to-go day pack in my car. Among other things that stay in that day pack is a cheap little camera. It's there ready for hikes or even when I go on shorter walks. Usually the camera stays in the pack, but occasionally I get it out. On this walk, the camera came out of the pack as soon as I saw the bald eagle. The eagle landed in a tree close by as I stood looking out over the wintry landscape. Upon landing, the eagle gave a short series of high pitched staccato cries. Quite attention getting!

Admittedly, this eagle photo is not much better than those pictures you see published of bigfoot or UFOs. My attempt to work closer for a better photograph of the eagle only managed to annoy it, and it spread it's impressive wings and departed. I wish I had a better camera with me on these walks and hikes, but unfortunately, after a camera of mine died in a dust storm in Southern Utah a few years ago, I'm leery of taking any of my better cameras with me on these trips. The cheep little $65 Casio worked well enough for the rest of these pictures, I believe.

There were a few smaller hawks around on that bright winter's day. A flock of juncos flitted about through the latticework of winter-bare tree branches and underbrush by the trail. A red-shafted flicker made itself known by it's distinctive "kyeer!" call.

There's still quite a bit of ice on the lake. The ice seems thin, though, and there appears to be open water out to the west.

Here's those same mountains, seen through a filter of cottonwood trees.

In the other direction, seen across open ranch land, are some of my favorite stomping grounds; the canyons and ridges of the Wasatch Mountains.

The day's walk comes to a close as I return to my car. Before driving away I take one more look at a cloud-haloed Mount Timpanogos.

New Years Day Plein Air Painting Revisited

This will be an attempt to show step-by-step the painting I made on New Years Day. I hope it will be informative in spite of it's shortcomings. I'm not a wizard with photography, so there's some inconsistency from one shot to the next. Editing photographs of paintings is another challenge. It seems that no matter how hard I work at editing photos, my best hope is to get the photo to look somewhat similar to the original painting. It never looks exactly the same. Sometimes I just take the photos over again. However, you cannot take in-progress photos over again. Also, the finished photographs of paintings will look different from program to program, and from one computer monitor to another. That being said, here's the pictures:

The first thing I do when beginning an on-location painting is tone the panel with a thinned mix of colors. The tone layer is then painted over without allowing it to dry. Since the tone layer is still wet, it mixes somewhat with the next layers of paint, influencing them. Painting wet paint over wet paint also prevents the thinned tone layer from drying into a weak layer.

Using the same color mix as the tone, the composition develops and the darks begin to be worked out.

In the next photo, the darks are established further, and some color begins to be added.

As more color is added, the painting progresses from dark colors to light colors.

Admittedly, more happened in between the last photo and the next picture than is shown here, but I got caught up in paining and forgot to keep shooting pics. The next picture shows the development of distant clouds, and texture in the trees, brush, and marsh grasses.

The next picture shows further development of all parts of the painting, depending on where I think work is needed. 

A few more touch-ups, and the painting is signed and finally finished! 

The last picture shown was photographed with a different camera than the rest of the pictures in this post. I was unhappy with the quality I got with the old little cheapie Casio camera used for the other pictures, so the finished work was rephotographed with a better camera. I'm still not entirely pleased with the photograph, but I'm happy to have the opportunity to show these in-progress pictures to you. I hope that this series of pictures, along with the brief descriptions accompanying them, will give you some insight into the workings of some of the plein air paintings that come from my pochade boxes or easels. Thanks for Reading!

New Years Day 2018

8" x 10" Oil on Panel

Thought I should start this year off right by going plein air painting. The weather seemed to agree, being an exceptionally mild day for January first. The day was mostly sunny, with only small patches of snow lingering here and there on the ground. I went to a place west of Springville where some cottonwood trees grew along the bank of a canal. 

The water level in the canal looked unusually high. Taking a short walk down by the trees, I discovered the reason for the high water. In the canal by the trees were a couple beaver dams.

Here's How I Spent New Years Day.

The picture at the top of this post shows the painting I made on New Years Day. Colors used were cadmium yellow light, yellow ochre, cadmium red, anthraquinone red (think "permanent alizarin crimson"), cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, and titanium white.

During the course of the painting I took several in-progress photographs of it with an old, cheap Casio camera. It might take a few days, but I may post those in-progress pictures after I can edit them and decide if they're post-able. Stay tuned!

Random Pics from Random Hikes in the Wasatch Front 2017

Paintbrush

Hiking has always been a very important part of my life. Going on walks in the woods, mountains, desert - anyplace wild - is beneficial physically and mentally, and in so many other ways.

The Dry Lower Slopes of the Wasatch Front

Right next to town are the Wasatch Mountains. A few canyons cut deep into the mountains, and are convenient places to begin hikes. The photos in this blog post are from a few of the hikes I've taken this year. To view larger images, click on the pictures.

Near the Mouth of the Canyon

I don't always take photos while hiking. When I do, it's with a cheap little Casio camera that is usually with the gear in my day pack. I have better cameras at home, but it's the Casio that goes with me on trips. If the camera should be accidentally dropped, lost, or otherwise die, it wouldn't be too great an expense to replace it. All of the photos in this post were taken with that little $60 camera.

Water on the Trail

The spring runoff was pretty heavy this year. Fast moving water cut the usually dry canyon trail in several places. A springtime hike included a number of stream crossings while trying to keep my feet dry.

Closer View of the Water in the Previous Picture.

Thick vegetation covers some areas of the canyon bottom. Above that rise towering cliffs.

Wildlife commonly seen in the canyon include mule deer, bighorn sheep, and sometimes moose. I've seen elk sign in the canyon but have yet to see live elk.

Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies were common in the canyon this year.

Over halfway up the canyon trail you begin to get views of mountains rising above 11,000 feet in elevation.

Lizards are the most frequently seen reptiles in the canyon, but snakes are also often seen. I've met a number of rattlesnakes, and in spite of a couple alarming experiences we've always parted company peacefully. Also common are nonvenomous snakes; gopher snakes, racers, and - surprisingly - rubber boas.

It's not a giant earthworm -it's a rubber boa!

The upper end of the canyon opens up into meadows surrounded by evergreens and aspen trees, and wide open views.

Near one meadow I discovered a good sized aspen tree with very interesting claw marks on it. The claw marks were quite large. Similar marks were also found on a nearby tree. Could the marks have been made by a bear climbing the trees? The marks were rather old, but still encouraged vigilance on my part.

The claw marks go quite a ways up.

In another canyon later in the year I found this. It's not what I'd call pleasant accommodations. It looks like it should have trolls living in it. 

The top of this canyon also opens up into wonderful views of high mountains.

Provo Peak viewed from the north.

Imposing cliffs of Cascade Mountain.

The following photographs are a mix from a couple different canyons. Which canyons doesn't matter for my purposes here. I think this post will be about hiking and just being out in the wild more than it is about any particular place.

There are fascinating views of impressive mountain geology all around during these hikes, but there's much to see closer up, and on a smaller scale.

A Gnarly Rocky Mountain Maple Tree

Mud Wasp Nest?

High up on a cliff I saw this. Below the initials "LW" are reddish concentric circles and other marks. Are the reddish images ancient Indian rock art?

Among all the bigleaf raspberry plants I found one raspberry. I ate it.

Late summer wildflowers, including asters, growing by the trail in abundance.

Following are more views from Wasatch Range canyon hikes. The first one is a similar view to one shown earlier, but photographed later in the year, after most of the snow had melted.

Thanks for checking out my blog. Hope you liked it! Finally I'll leave you with this picture of me enjoying time spent in a Wasatch Mountain canyon.